Marlins Inquire On Bengie Molina

According to Joe Frisaro of MLB.com, the Marlins recently inquired on Giants catcher Bengie Molina. Frisaro believes the asking price may be too high, but the situation is worth watching.

Molina, 34, is hitting .282/.313/.421 in 368 plate appearances this year. Molina rarely draws a walk or strikes out. Behind the dish, he’s thrown out a third of attempted basestealers, fifth in baseball. Jason Kendall leads that stat by a wide margin, which is surprising to me.

Molina is owed another $2.2MM this year and $6MM in ’09, plus performance bonuses for games started as a catcher. He has some level of no-trade protection, though it’s unclear which teams are included. The Yankees have also been linked to Molina. The price is said to be a young power hitter.